Many elements of Lost Cause religion were rooted in distorted biblical hermeneutics, interpretative methods that gave proof texts for anti-Semitism, chattel slavery, Jim Crow separatism and white privilege.

Perhaps the signers are really mourning the loss of a post-Constantinian culture in a society where Protestant privilege wanes and churches must give witness to Christ’s gospel, not depending on principalities and powers to assist them.

The Baptist orthodoxy wars taught me this: When ideologues decide you are a heretic, they’ll raise the doctrinal ante until they prove it — if not to you, at least to themselves.

What if health care legislation becomes so draconian and human need so great that churches have to initiate or expand community clinics, not because Obamacare is repealed, but because Jesus requires it?

Substance abuse is a complex issue because pain is multilayered, taking on parallel and distinct configurations in every human being. Can persons enmeshed in pain and Percocet feel safe enough in our congregations to seek physical, mental and, yes, spiritual assistance?

What if campus carry is simply the most dangerous of an unceasing set of classroom distractions, existing alongside tweets, texts, Google, Wikipedia and Facebook, diversions that thwart both instruction and provocation, disengaging students from ideas that might form or re-form them?

Do numerical, financial and cultural declines compel churches to seek expanded assistance from the secular government? As culture-privilege deteriorates, does government-privilege become increasingly essential?

My “HIS 502 Intro to Christian History” class took their final examination this week: Three essay questions, choose 2, three hours. One of the questions was as follows: Jesus said: “At the resurrection, they will neither marry nor be given…

This Easter, the New York Times’ Sunday Review section was packed with op-ed columns related to American religion — more specifically American Christianity. Here’s a small summary. Nicholas Kristof interviewed former president and perpetual Baptist-Sunday-school-teacher Jimmy Carter (Carter even taught…

“Lord, if you had been here my brother would not have died.” That’s what Jesus’ friends Mary and Martha said to him on separate encounters after their brother Lazarus had expired in Bethany where Jesus was nowhere to be found.

Americans agree that national identity is in trouble but clearly disagree on what that identity is or might be. Nowhere is that more evident than in faith communities.

We all pontificate, those times when we “speak or express opinions in a pompous or dogmatic way.” Like the pastor who entered the pulpit one Sunday and declared: “I had a great sermon on humility for today. But the crowd…

This week, the Huffington Post reported bomb threats against Jewish community centers in 10 states. Sixty-seven such incidents occurred at 56 Jewish centers in 27 states since 2017 began. This week, the Winston-Salem Journal detailed a local meeting where the…